Close Acquaintances
by annual123
Summary: A story from the beginning stages of the friendship between McCoy and Kirk. No Slash.
1. Chapter 1

Leonard McCoy stared up at the ceiling of his apartment and groaned in frustration.

Sleep proved to be elusive all because of a stubborn cadet he had met a few months ago. Strange as it may seem, he couldn't stop thinking of Kirk. He would occasionally see him around campus, but most often in the clinic or hospital due to his seemingly endless run-ins with people that he ticked off. The kid seemed to have an omnipresent bruised cheek or black eye and as stupid as he thought the kid was, he couldn't get him out of his mind. He didn't know why he cared; truthfully he didn't really care about most of the impudent cadets that seemed driven to get themselves killed while in the academy either by drink or fight.

After an hour of staring at the walls, Leonard got out of bed with an inkling that he should find a sleep aid or he was going to be dead during his next shift….in four hours.

Ugh.

As he walked over to his med kit he heard a soft rapping on the door.

_What the heck? _No one bothered him at his apartment especially at two in the morning.

At his command his door slid open and he saw the form of a person leaning heavily on the door frame.

"Hey, Bones."

There was only one person who called him that.

"Kirk?"

"Hey there," Kirk smirked. "I was in the area and I thought that I'd stop by."

McCoy scoffed. "It is two AM, Kirk, no one visits now."

Kirk blinked rapidly as though he was trying to clear the fog from his mind and began to put more of his weight on the door frame. Even through this Kirk kept his façade and continued on with some playful banter.

"Not even good friends, Bones?"

"Kirk, I barely know you, I wouldn't even consider you to be a close acquaintance." McCoy sighed. This kid had a rep for getting sloshed and beaten on a regular basis.

"Cut to the chase, Kirk."

"Long story short, I went a few rounds with a guy named Cupcake and let's just say he's not very sweet no matter what his name may suggest and right now my mind is so foggy I can hardly see straight."

McCoy sharply looked at Kirk. "You're drunk, Kirk, go back to your dorm and sleep it off."

"Bones, please. They locked me out again and it is raining outside." Leonard hadn't even noticed that the kid was soaked to the bone.

"Fine, but I need to rest to get through my shift today." He motioned Jim inside and walked away to get a towel when he heard a solid thud.

Kirk had collapsed.

McCoy rushed over to find Jim laying prone on the floor blinking rapidly up at him.

"Kirk, are you alright?" Jim just went from drunkard to patient.

Jim was slow to reply. "Fine, fine. Just help me get up."

McCoy carefully placed an arm behind Jim's shoulders and lifted him to a sitting position. Jim closed his eyes and tried to control his breathing. The room was spinning even behind his eyelids and he felt his stomach begin to rebel. After a few minutes he opened his eyes to find a seemingly still room with a tired and worried doctor staring at him. Jim was quick to shrug off his sudden spell and gave an amused smile and began to stand on his own.

Not the right decision.

His knees buckled once again and he would have fallen on his face if it wasn't for a pair of hands swiftly grabbing him and hauling him over to an old plaid couch. Jim opened his eyes once again to see a not only worried doctor, but an angry one.

"You are an idiot. You should have said that you were hurting and needed help." Bones all but yelled.

"Sorry." Jim slurred. "I just needed a place to sit, I'll be fine."

"Fine? You took a swan dive onto my floor! Just sit there and I'll call up the clinic to send someone over to get you."

"Like I said before, I'll be fine Bones. I just moved too quickly. I don't need a visit to the clinic, just patch me up a bit and send me on my way." Even in his state, Jim was stubborn.

McCoy rubbed a weary hand over his face and sighed. This kid was a handful. He began to walk over to call the clinic, but something stopped him. His med kit was out and the kid was hurting. As a doctor he wanted to help those in need and would just be damning all of those oaths that he took if he just threw Jim out. Knowing what little he did, McCoy learned from records that the kid was a runner. As soon as he was patched up, he disappeared from the ward. Most of the times he was in the hospital he was dragged in by another person that insisted that he needed attention. Now the kid was asking for it. If he didn't help him now he may never get proper medical attention.

"Fine." McCoy walked over to his med kit and retrieved his tricorder and scanned Jim. He had a mild concussion, a cracked rib, and a multitude of bruises. McCoy prepared a hypospray and prepared to inject the cadet with a pain killer when a hand reached out to stop him.

"Wait, Bones. Unless you're sure that I'm not allergic to that, I wouldn't recommend doing that." Kirk actually looked worried.

McCoy reached over to grab his PADD and after a few minutes he found Jim T. Kirk's medical record which was overflowing with information.

"Good god man, what aren't you allergic to?"

Jim chuckled. "Oh, a few things."

McCoy checked to see if he had something in his med kit that he could give Jim. Thankfully, he had one vial of something he could. He immediately gave the hypospray to Jim and watched as the lines of tension washed off of his face and his eyelids began to droop.

"Just sleep Jim. I gave you something to relax, you look like you could use the sleep." Jim gave him a confused look. "I'm not as hard up as it would seem, you're welcome to stay until you can get back in your dorm." At that comment Jim's eyelids slid shut.

As stupid as the kid may be, McCoy kind of liked him and understood why he was thinking of him earlier. Jim was too crazy and daring for his own good, but before McCoy had joined the strict rigors of the medical community he was sort of like Jim Kirk.

Maybe someday they would be close acquaintances.

* * *

First off, I understand that I am not a very good writer, but really enjoy reading fanfiction and wanted to try writing one :). This is my first StarTrek story, so please forgive me if something is inaccurate! It really doesn't go very deep into the two characters, so should I continue or is it a good place to stop? I would appreciate all and any reviews!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Thank-you all very much for the wonderful reviews, you all are very kind! I really appreciate them! :) I hope that you like this chapter! I really don't have very much knowledge on Star Trek, so if I need to make any important changes tell me!

* * *

McCoy woke not to the sound of his alarm, but to the impact of his face on the floor. After swearing at the stupidity of the whole situation, he took a minute to process how in the world he ended up crashing to the floor. And then it hit him.

Jim.

He had been sitting in the chair next to the sofa that held a sleeping Jim Kirk and apparently had fallen asleep as well or he wouldn't have found himself on the floor. He cursed the hard and slippery chairs that were assigned to all of the living quarters, doctor or not. The doctor looked over at the couch to assess his patient's condition, but instead found that Jim was true to his reputation.

He was gone.

There wasn't even a trace of the cadet other than the neatly folded blanket that was used to cover the shivering cadet mere hours earlier. What McCoy gave the cadet should have knocked him out for at least six hours, but four hours hadn't even passed. The kid must have built up some sort of resistance to sedatives, and sure, medications affected different people in different ways, but still, Jim looked exhausted when he arrived, sedative or not, he should have been deeply embedded in Morpheus' arms.

McCoy actually felt a bit of concern for the cadet, especially considering that just a few hours before he collapsed onto his apartment floor. McCoy looked around the room once more.

Well, at least he made it out the door.

He walked out into the hallway and scanned the corridor—still no Jim. He even called Medical to see if a cadet with Jim's description came in for medical assistance, but the nurse responded with a polite 'no'. McCoy reassured himself that the cadet must have been alright and busied himself by getting himself ready for his shift.

* * *

He was running.

Then heard the yelling, the swearing, the threats. He was afraid. His heart was racing. He was running so hard that it felt like he was soaring. What had he done this time? It must have been bad. He could feel the fear and the adrenaline swelling in him and felt a hand suddenly reach out and grab his shirt.

Then he felt the pain, the burning pain…

Jim abruptly woke in a sweat to the sight of a bland off-white ceiling staring back at him. The cadet soon came to the conclusion that he must have made it back to his dorm last night and in response buried himself further into his blanket and his eyes began to drift with the sound of gentle snoring in the background.

Wait. Snoring?

His roommate didn't snore; he had actually directly asked Jim if he had heard him snore before, and truth be, he didn't. Then where was he? He had better not have passed out on the bar floor again. That was getting old. He slowly rolled to his side and tried to muffle a painful groan from his sore ribs and found the doctor he had met on the shuttle sleeping in an awkward position on the chair next to him. Jim realized that he had a blanket covering him and he smiled.

Bones _was_ a nice guy no matter what his reputation may be.

As quietly as Jim could, he raised himself to a sitting position and readied himself for the spinning that was bound to come. This time the world did not spin off its axis, but Jim still found himself gripping the old couch and taking slow, deep breaths. He peeled the warm blanket away, folded it, and placed it on the back of the couch. He slowly stood and did his best not to collapse once again. Right now, the space from the couch to the door seemed a whole lot longer than it had before.

_One foot in front of the other. You can make it. _

By the time that he made it to the door he was feeling about fifty years older and was starting to question his logic.

He stumbled a few times and with each stumble he gave a quick glance over to the sleeping doctor, but thankfully, he kept on sleeping. _Thank goodness for small miracles._

Once Jim made it to the door he gave a small sigh of relief. Jim whispered a quick thanks to Bones, slowly opened the door and stumbled out into the barren hall. From there it was a matter of trusting the wall for support and relying on his last reserves to slowly shuffle himself to his dorm.

After a long and agonizing walk, the cadet finally made it to the door of his dorm and found that the door was unlocked. He walked into the darkness and tried to maneuver himself through the maze that served as a room. Upon entrance to the bedroom he found his roommate with his face plastered to his pillow.

His name was Robert Korigen. Straight-laced and always in bed by nine, Korigen never seemed to care for Jim. Truthfully, he'd locked him out on numerous occasions stating that Jim was a "hindrance to his sleep and peace" and needed to find a better place to stay with "people like him".

Jim chuckled. If only he could find someone.

He slowly crawled into his bed and soon fell into a restless slumber.

* * *

_A bit later that day..._

Leonard McCoy was busy. No better way to say it. Just plain busy. A group of cadets had just come in from a training camp off planet and had a nasty run in with a few of the locals, not to mention a plant similar to poison ivy. So now he had whiny, itchy cadets that couldn't seem to keep it to themselves. He ran around from one patient to another, administering hyposprays, yelling at the cadets to stop the blasted itching, and rambling off instructions to the nurses. Thankfully, the rash seemed easy to treat and was responding well to the medication.

After things had slowed down, McCoy found himself propping his head up with one hand and his eyelids slowly closing, but this respite was soon cut short by the entrance of a nurse with a bored look on her face.

"Pardon me Dr. McCoy, but there is a request from Captain Pike." She quickly handed him the message and walked out.

Leonard had met Pike on only one occasion and it never went beyond a 'hello' and a handshake. Must be something important.

_Dr. McCoy, _

_One of my cadets that I advise has specifically requested you to be his assigned physician. I am not sure if you have met him before, but his name is James Tiberius Kirk. He is very talented, but truthfully, a downright danger to himself. I have heard of your capabilities and have great faith that you can pull him out of the messes that he gets himself into._

_Captain Pike_

Pike didn't know that McCoy just had a run-in with Kirk, but with all of the cadets that had been assigned to him, he had never received a personal note from one of the top guns.

Maybe Kirk was more than a playboy and a drunk. Maybe Pike just wanted to give him fair warning so he knew what he was getting into. Maybe a bit of both.

He must be something special.

* * *

**A/N: **I feel as though this chapter lacked a bit of character and action and I apologize for that, but please, tell me what you think! I would love to know :) What do you all think, continue or not?


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I am very sorry for how long it took to get another chapter out! Thank-you to all who are reading and to those who have been patient with me!**

It was a peaceful day.

Except for the blaring of sirens approaching and the bloodied messes that piled into the ER waiting room. There was a bar fight involving over fifteen cadets and now each and every one of them was being escorted into the waiting room with a litany of injuries. The worst were hobbling their way over to different exam rooms with nurses prepping them for the present doctors.

Leonard McCoy walked into exam room five and looked at the chart.

_Two broken ribs, four bruised, broken nose, lacerations above the right ear and right eye, multiple bruises, and a mild to moderate concussion. _

"Damn…" McCoy swore. Who could have gotten themself into this kind of condition? Must have been one heck of a fight.

McCoy slid open the curtain, quickly closed it back up and looked into the blackened eye of his first patient.

Into the eyes of James Tiberius Kirk.

"Got yourself into another mess kid?"

Jim slowly blinked at McCoy, seemingly having a hard time comprehending the situation at hand.

Finally, a slow response came.

"Yeah."

No comment on being perfectly fine, just resignation that he got beat half out of his mind.

McCoy strangely felt a pang of sympathy for the kid. _Maybe he's just drunk, _McCoy thought hopefully. He tried for a response on how much Jim drank that evening, but all he got was a grunt. Upon testing his alcohol level he found that it was well below the limit and decided that more questions could wait. There were more pressing issues at hand.

His patient was falling asleep sitting up, slowly listing to the side, but jerked awake after the pressure on his injured ribs proved too much even for the exhausted cadet.

That was when the first intelligible response came. "Bones just fix me up. Please." Jim almost pleaded.

McCoy responded with a sympathetic tone. "I am kid, I am. I'm going to give you some painkillers; you look like you could use some."

"No, no hypos. They are nasty things." Jim's voice was strong despite his weak appearance.

"Jim, you are hurting. It is either this or an IV, your choice. Just one quick injection or being tied down for a few hours. I'm fine with either."

There was a long pause.

"Fine, but just one." McCoy then quickly injected Kirk.

"Ow! You don't have to put so much force behind it, you know." Kirk glared.

"Stop being such an infant."

"Just get on with it." Jim wasn't the happiest camper.

The damage ranged from superficial to severe and Bones patched Jim up as best as modern medicine allowed. Even with pain killers, by the middle Jim was pale and sweating with short gasps of breath coming from his pursed lips.

"Jim? " McCoy called his attention away from the ceiling. "I'm going to give you something stronger, but it is going to cause you to be drowsy." Jim gave a small nod as McCoy readied the hypo.

Soon after, Jim's body visibly relaxed and his eyelids began to droop.

"Just rest Jim, you'll be fine."

And that he did.

* * *

Jim woke to the sight of a stark white ceiling. Something was tickling his nose and he struggled to blink the fog away. He raised his hand to his nose and found a cannula there and started to remove it until a voice bellowed over.

"Leave that there, you idiot. I wouldn't have put it there if you didn't need it." Bones looked exasperated. "When you were sleeping you were having some trouble breathing, so for now don't touch it, just rest and heal."

Jim couldn't lie to himself.

He was exhausted.

Lately he had been running on fumes. He just plain couldn't sleep and even if he was able to catch a few hours here and there, his sleep was never peaceful. It hadn't been in over ten years, and the best he could get would be a seemingly dreamless sleep.

Jim looked up at McCoy and put on a false bravado. "Can't I just go Bones? I feel fine, never been better!"

McCoy gave him a flat look. "I highly doubt that Jim. I want you to stay overnight for observation. End of story."

Jim watched McCoy as he edged over to his IV and adjusted something on it.

_His _IV.

"When did that get there?" Jim asked calmly, he was suddenly feeling very sleepy.

"A little after that" McCoy pointed to the cannula "got there."

"Bones?" McCoy cringed at the name, but answered anyway.

"Yeah, Jim?"

"You really should stop giving me sedatives. They make me feel…fluffy and I can't even get angry enough to tell you about how much I hate this thing." Jim held up his arm and dangled the IV tubing.

"Not gonna happen Jim, they're the only way to keep you 'tied down' and out of trouble." McCoy glanced back over at Jim his eyebrows were furrowed in confusion.

"I mean really, I feel fluffy and itchy, and does the room always look like that?" Jim's breathing suddenly became raspy. McCoy looked up at the monitor and saw Jim's heart rate begin to rise, skyrocket was more like it.

"Jim!"

"What did you… give me Bones?" It was getting hard for Jim to catch a breath.

Jim was having an allergic reaction to the mild sedative that McCoy gave him. McCoy quickly grabbed the hypospray, administered a dose of epinephrine into his patient's quaking form, and increased the amount of oxygen. Suddenly, Jim's heart rate lowered and his blood oxygen rose to a normal level.

McCoy gave a sigh of relief.

"Good god man, seriously. What aren't you allergic to? I read through your file before I administered the drug and didn't see it there."

Jim gave him a smirk.

"It isn't funny Jim; you could have died." McCoy shot him a sullen look.

"Well, I am still here… alive and kickin', aren't I?" The ability to breathe was slowly coming back to Jim.

"That could become debatable, Jim. Real fast." McCoy glared.

"Ah Bones…don't be that way…Ah! Damn it, Bones!"

McCoy administered another sedative and watched Jim as he slowly drifted off to unconsciousness.

He then pulled over a chair, slowly sat and watched. He didn't know why he cared so much. Jim was just making it up to acquaintance status and yet he felt such concern for the young man. Jim was just so reckless and it seemed as though every day he was walking towards death's door.

McCoy rubbed a shaking hand over his stubbly face.

He was protective of Jim Kirk even though he barely knew him other than his medical record. But still, Jim needed someone to watch over his dangerous self, didn't he?

McCoy stared at Jim as his breaths became more even in his dreamless sleep.

And soon McCoy fell into an awkward sleep next to Jim in his uncomfortable hospital chair.

* * *

**I hope that you all enjoyed the chapter! I am not very good at keeping an intense moment going, so I apologize if it was boring in any way, shape, or form. As always, I would love any and all comments!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hello! Once again I am very sorry for taking so long to update! College kept me quite busy, but now we are on Christmas break! :) Thank-you all who have kept reading and all of you that have reviewed, favorited, and/or put the story on their alert list! I really do appreciate all of you guys :)

I must warn you that there is a bit of swearing in this chapter!

* * *

When Jim woke he couldn't move his arm.

Or his other arm.

Or his legs for that matter.

And he wasn't in his quarters.

Jim looked up to see a fluorescent light glaring at him from above and remembered where he was.

The hospital. He was in the hospital. But for what? The last thing he remembered was Bones sitting down in the chair next to his bed, but Bones wasn't there anymore.

"Bones…." Jim's voice came out as a mere whisper.

"Bones." Jim tried again. Jim was about to call again when he heard the soft padding of feet approaching the bed, and instead of a grumpy doctor staring at him he got the pleasant site of a blond nurse looking quizzically at him.

"Hey there." He may be down but perhaps he could win a nurse over to his side, or rather, on a date.

Jim saw a look of worry on the nurse's face as she approached his bedside and Jim himself became concerned after the nurse visibly kept her distance. She quickly read off the stats on Jim's monitor and quickly excused herself with a barely audible "I'll get Dr. McCoy".

A few minutes passed and apparently the nurse followed through with her intention seeing as how Bones was walking through the door.

"How do you feel, Jim?" Bones looked almost as worried as the nurse.

_What was wrong with him? _A brief wave of fear swept over the seemingly fearless Jim Kirk. _Was he dying? Was he so messed up that people were scared to tell him the truth? Would he never fly again? _

Jim spoke up. "What the hell is wrong with me, Bones? You and the nurse both look at me as though I am carrying the plague. What the _hell _is wrong? And why can't I move!?"

Bones looked concerned, really concerned. "You haven't noticed, Jim? There are restraints on your wrists and ankles."

He hadn't noticed. The thought never occurred to him to look to his side to look at the straps holding him to the hospital bedrails. He felt so exhausted; a little part of him must have innately chalked his lack of movement up to exhaustion, but why was he in restraints in the first place? Jim tugged at the restraints.

"Why exactly do I have restraints, Bones?" He asked as he pulled at the restraints on his ankles.

"You got combative last night. No one could wake you. You were thrashing and yelling for _hours_, Jim." There was that concerned look again. "The nurses tried to hold you down because you were beginning to hurt yourself with all of your movement. After the first hour I decided to have you restrained so you wouldn't hurt yourself. Around four in the morning you calmed down. You wouldn't wake up. We were scared, Jim."

"I…I'm sorry. I don't remember anything." Jim stared at the ceiling. "I felt fine when I woke up just a bit ago, exhausted, but fine."

Bones gave him a weak smile. "Well, anyways, it seems as though we can take those restraints off now." McCoy quickly got busy with undoing the restraints and was silent throughout the procedure.

"What's wrong, Bones? You always have something to say even if you're just telling me off. Was it really that bad?" Jim stared at the doctor as the he immediately stopped his ministrations.

"You were crying, Jim. _Sobbing_. Yelling for your_ mother_. We couldn't do anything. I tried to sedate you, but for some damned reason you wouldn't stop." McCoy looked away as he choked out a few last words. "It was bad. Really bad."

Jim couldn't do anything except stare at his chest. He couldn't speak. He almost felt sick with guilt. They saw a side of Jim that he thought only he could see. It was painful for Jim to relive the memories of his childhood, but over the years, and over the thousands of drinks, he could handle it. He could put a cap on his pain and put on a smile. Some wounds had finally scarred over. No one should have seen his pain.

No one.

He was ashamed. Ashamed that he made others _scared_ for him. Ashamed that he made Bones worry. Ashamed that others were there to witness the reliving of his memories.

A warm hand was on his shoulder. Jim looked up to see McCoy staring down at him.

Bone's voice was soft. "I don't think that I want to know what was going on in that head of yours, but if you need someone to talk to, I'm here. I know I can be a jerk sometimes, but if you need help, Jim, I'm here or I can refer you to someone if you'd like."

Jim glanced back up. "I'll be fine, Bones. Really."

McCoy gave Jim something close to a look of pity and began to walk out of the room.

"Hey, Bones?"

Leonard stopped and turned around to face his patient. "Yeah, Jim?"

"What was the name of that nurse that was in here earlier?" _Put a cap on it, smile, and ease the pain_.

"Christine. But don't you dare go and bother her with your 'charm', Jim. Otherwise I'll put you in this hospital myself and I will ensure that as many hypos are used as possible." McCoy stated matter-of-factly.

"I'm not that bad of a person!" Jim pouted.

"My staff is off limits. You don't want an angry ex-girlfriend administering hypos and ensuring your safety and health, do you Jim?" McCoy crossed his arms.

"You're bad enough, Bones." Jim chuckled.

"Without me you'd be knocking on death's door! And I thought I told you to not call me Bones. I have a name you know." McCoy gave Jim a flat look.

"Yes, Dr. McCoy." Jim saluted him.

"Incorrigible fool." McCoy began walking again.

"Hey, Bones?"

"What now?" McCoy looked sternly at Jim.

Jim looked at the floor while he spoke. "Thanks…for everything."

McCoy gave Jim a nod and walked out of the room.

_Damn, _Leonard shook his head.

_He cared._

* * *

**A/N: **Please do review! What do you think about the whole "caring" business? It seems to be pretty recurrent, so should I continue on with that or is it getting to be too much? I enjoy getting feedback whether it is positive or negative and want to know what I can do to make the story better, just tell me what you think :). Also, Merry Christmas to you all! _  
_


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